1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical wiring board and an optical bus system through which transmission between boards or chips is conducted by means of a light signal, and a method of manufacturing such an optical wiring board, and more particularly relates to an optical wiring board and an optical bus system, which can be manufactured easily and have a high degree of freedom in arrangement of optical components, and a method of manufacturing such an optical wiring board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an optical wiring board in which data are optically transmitted has been proposed for a purpose of increasing the data transmission speed between boards or chips and reducing electromagnetic noise.
JP-A-2000-329962 discloses such a conventional optical wiring board.
The optical wiring board includes a planar optical waveguide, a plurality of first optical fibers optically connected to one end face of the waveguide, a plurality of second optical fibers optically connected to the other end face of the waveguide, and a support board in which grooves for accommodating the waveguide and the optical fibers are formed. The waveguide and the optical fibers are accommodated and supported in the grooves. An electro-optical conversion circuit is connected to the first optical fibers via photoelectric conversion elements. An opto-electrical conversion circuit is connected to the second optical fibers via photoelectric conversion elements. According to the configuration, many-to-many communication can be conducted between the electro-optical conversion circuit and the opto-electrical conversion circuit. Since the optical fibers can be embedded in the grooves, the optical fibers can be disposed while being bent. Moreover, devices for fixing the optical fibers are not required, and hence an apparatus can be more miniaturized than a case where the optical fibers are disposed on a surface of the support board.
In the optical wiring board disclosed in JP-A-2000-329962, the optical waveguide and the optical fibers are accommodated and positioned in the grooves formed by a cutting process, thereby causing problems in that the cost of the cutting process is increased, and that the degree of freedom in arrangement is lowered.